Happy Independence Day. If you like practices in the midst of a pandemic at the beginning of July, then this is your time. A starving fandom is awaiting word of the next happening for their favorite teams and its players. That’s how deprived Americans are of sport. There is only so much Serie A soccer on Wednesdays before PTI that one can handle.
Baseball is back. The Mets opened Training Camp 02 at Citi Field on July 3. The Yankees formally began their preparations on July 4th. Ironically, that was deceased team owner George Steinbrenner’s birthday. The other MLB clubs followed suit as they head to the start of the 60 games in 66 days on July 23.
Meanwhile, in the NBA, practice has begun at team facilities, as the 22 eligible teams gear up for the 8 game finish to the regular season before embarking into the playoffs. Each team will be situated at Disney World in Kissimmee. FL in a protective bubble designed to make this season happen.
The NHL appears headed north of the border for its resumption of play. It is strongly rumored that Toronto and Edmonton are the preferred destinations for the eligible teams. 46% of the NHL players are Canadian, which slightly lessens the problems inherent in the policies of containment in the U.S. and Canada. The teams are in Phase 2 of the NHL’s readiness to play plan, which means they are on ice in their home rinks.
All of this sounds nice. Watching Gerrit Cole throwing in mid-season form during an unofficial practice, striking out Aaron Judge and Clint Frazier with nasty stuff was good. Seeing Judge swing and not hurt his ribs was very good. A dominant Cole, eating up innings and winning big, plus the presence of healthy Number 99 on the field adds so much the powerful Yankees lineup.
Over in Queens, hitting coach Chili Davis is 60 years old and voluntarily not in camp (Chili Davis is 60!! It seems like 10 years ago he was still playing for the Yankees, where he ended his career in 1999). No matter how much he can contribute and have his assistants giving on-field instruction, his absence will be a big hole as they Mets train for the start of the campaign.
Yoenis Cespedes is back in the Mets good fortunes. It appears he may have regained his health and, according to General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen, we could expect to see Cespedes both in the outfield and at the DH position this season. If he returns to close to form, this will give the Mets offense a jolt it needs, especially without star pitcher Noah Syndergaard, out this season after arm surgery, and it will possibly give 2X Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom a couple of more wins en route to his third Cy Young Award? Early returns from his Friday bullpen session showed deGrom to be in nearly top shape.
I saw a statistic that the betting line for the Philadelphia Phillies, beginning their first year under the guidance of Joe Girardi, is at O/U 31.5 wins. That is a paltry amount, which is attributable to the Washington Nationals designated as the overwhelmingly presumptive favorite in the NL East, based on their play last season leading them to the World Series. Or the oddsmakers see parity within the division not singling out a future runaway favorite, coupled with their common opponents from the AL East, home to the Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Baltimore. I think 31 wins is too few for this Phillies squad, which has good pitching and good young players to surround Bryce Harper.
Don’t be overly optimistic about this season progressing to the World Series and crowning a champion. MLB has not offered us the full schedule as of July 4th. Why is it taking so long?
Just because the testing and temperature taking is in place, there are so many worries which I have detailed in prior blogs. Washington is going to be without one of its cogs, 1B Ryan Zimmerman, who has opted not to play. In Colorado, Ian Desmond also has chosen to sit out. AL MVP Mike Trout wants to play, but the birth of his first child in the near future is greatly on his mind and how to keep his wife and child free from the coronavirus could alter his decision about participating. That would eliminate one of the game’s greatest stars and make playoff paths suddenly easier for team in the AL West and NL West.
Trout isn’t the only one with trepidation. Unfortunately, the rate of infections will increase as the teams come together, no matter how they keep socially distant and try to behave. That his why there is a 60 man roster for this season, in anticipation of players leaving active status voluntarily, being injured or acquiring the disease.
Factor in the rate of infection has risen dramatically in states which are home to many MLB teams, that makes travel more restrictive and could lead to California, Arizona, Florida and Georgia-based teams being forced to play part or all of their home schedule on the road. Competitive balance will then be gone.
Initial results on Friday from 3,185 samples disclosed 38 positives, of which 31 were players. The rate was 1.2%, well below the current national rate of 9.0%. This is encouraging for MLB and the MLBPA. The number of infections daily are over 50,000 the last three days. Chief alarmist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is calling for greater numbers in the future who get sick and die. If more drastic preventative measures aren’t undertaken.
Baseball must be very cautious with this first batch of tests. The players hadn’t been together and their ability to infect each other will grow greater with increased contact and not a complete bubble encasing them.
I applaud the efforts of the Boston Red Sox who have redone portions of Fenway Park for dressing and weight training with social distancing in mind. We hear so little else from the teams of what exactly they are going to do to keep the players and personnel safer. And the Dodgers have not finished their $100 million renovation of Dodger Stadium, so it is also a good thing that the 2020 MLB All Star Game scheduled for that park has been canceled; the LA crowd will have to wait until 2022 to host their first Mid-Summer Classic since 1980. It is also the first cancellation since 1945, with World War II still not over.
I also find it laughable that Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees owner and managing partner, believes that the Yankees will have fans at the Stadium during some point of this season. Why would he say that given the way things are in New York right now regarding wearing masks and not socially distancing at gatherings is ridiculous.
Turning to the NBA as they head to their July 31 start at Walt Disney World, both the Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat have closed their facilities due to positive tests for COVID-19. Since teams are in training, this is not good.
Players have voiced their reluctance to go to Florida, yet at the same time have a great desire to play the game they love and for which they are handsomely paid. A number of players who either tested positive or are nursing injuries are not going with their teams. The Nets have a slew of key players who are not headed South and the Pacers’ Victor Oladipo disclosed that he was not playing to give his leg more time to heal—even if he had returned to the Indiana roster and played in 7 games before the hiatus began. Boston’s Brendan Haywood stated he will leave the team in September for the birth of his first child.—in the middle of the playoffs.
Expect more closures of camps. The Toronto Raptors are practicing at Florida Gulf Coast University and it is so far, so good. Then again, Florida is a hotbed of the virus. Texas is another locale where things are dicey.
COVID-19 is not practicing; it is playing for real. Which is why the NBA season is very much in peril. No matter how well the league and the players try to insulate themselves.
Droves of Secret Service agents are infected as they protect our leaders. The girlfriend of the President’s son has tested positive. NASCAR legend Jimmy Johnson is out of the Brickyard 400 due to testing positive. Colleges are starting to cancel non-conference early schedule games in fear of the coronavirus—Lafayette at Navy went by the wayside on Friday and more are upcoming. The pandemic is all over the place.
Which is why the NBA proposal for a second bubble in Chicago for the 8 teams which did not make the playoffs is ludicrous. We are talking about a four game tournament to maintain “competitive balance.” I love that phrase. The teams not in Florida would be better off having played a game or two, period. Some of the greats of the game like Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson should opt out. Is there really a need for the Knicks to play the Warriors, the Hawks to meet the Pistons, the Bulls and Cavaliers playing each other or Minnesota and Charlotte getting it on? Especially when there is no clue as to how the Florida experiment is going to work.
Then there is the NFL. Rumors have it that players who contract the virus will be fined. Really? Let them discipline Tom Brady for his unauthorized practices. Narrowing the pre-season to 2 games is indicative of the problems facing the league to start in September. The NFLPA is readying a proposal which would entirely eliminate the preseason in favor of a different end of training camp. Stay tuned on these developments.
Meanwhile, Roger Goodell and his cohorts need to deal with the Redskins name change. Fed Ex, Nike and PepsiCo, big sponsors for the team, have listed their objection to the racist overtones of the name. Politicians in D.C. said that the team must change the name if owner Dan Snyder wants to relocate his team and build on the site of R.F.K. Stadium.
Snyder had been steadfast in his refusal to give in to pressure. He cited a 2016 Washington Post poll which disclosed that 90% of Native Americans were not offended by the nickname. No matter that so many others wanted it changed—he wasn’t doing it.
Now he is being forced to reconsider his stance due to social and economic forces joining together. The belief is that he will change the name before the start of the 2020 season—if it occurs. The Cleveland Indians are also exploring a name change. That’s good. Are you hearing this, Atlanta?
So let’s leave this week’s entry with a better result. The WNBA’s Maya Moore left the sport, where she was a star on the Minnesota Lynx, to fight an injustice. Jonathan Irons was convicted in Missouri on charges of burglary and assault and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Irons had always insisted he did not commit the crime and he was misidentified, as well as a fingerprint from the crime scene, in possession of the prosecution which was not that of Irons, was never turned over to his defense team.
After a post-conviction hearing overturned the conviction in March and a series of failed appeals, the lead prosecutor in St. Charles County declined to retry the matter. On Thursday, Irons emerged from prison, wearing a mask, joyful for the support he had in gaining his freedom. Maya Moore was there and wept when Irons emerged as a free man.
Moore’s family met Irons through a prison ministry before she began her sterling collegiate career at the University of Connecticut. Her support of his cause never wavered and grew throughout the years until she felt strongly enough to leave professional basketball in her prime playing years to seek justice. The strength and perseverance she demonstrated should be a model for everyone as this country seeks direction during this pandemic. Right still matters.
Things are changing. In sports, as in the world, we must strive for change and correctness in our actions without being too extreme. There is much going on which we can control and a ton more which is out of our control. Keep that in mind, Roger Goodell, Gary Bettman, Adam Silver and Rob Manfred.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
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